Night Races
by wolfsrainrules
Summary: Aurora Jackson has seen a few things while living in NY. Walking talking Mutant Ninja Turtles were WAY up there, but they saved her, and then she saved them and it kind of...spiraled from there. (AU. Hints of Don/OC but can be taken as family.)


The first time she meets them, it's three in the morning and they're saving her ass.

Aurora Jackson lived in New York. She had seen, prevented, and lived through some weird things, but she had to admit that walking talking Mutant Turtles were _way_ up there on the 'Holy Shit' meter. (The fact that they were Ninjas upped the factor a few points too)

Still, even if they _were_ something she had never seen or thought of before, they had saved her life.

So Aurora thanked them and offered her services and number whenever they needed it.

O~O~O~O~

The next time Aurora sees them it's 2:30 in the morning, she's driving and _they_ are trying to out run the Purple Dragons who are chasing the turtles with a truck and catching up.

Aurora takes one look and decides to pay them back.

She grins and drifts to a stop in front of them where she leans over to throw the door of her car open "Get in!"

They take a few seconds to recognize her, glance back at the quickly approaching Purple Dragons, and then Mikey is diving into the back seat with Leo and Raph while Don is taking the passenger side. It's a tight fit, but it works well enough even if elbows and knees and shells are hitting each other.

"Hold on tight! This is gonna get _rough_!"

Aurora hits the gas and then they're moving and she has never been so glad that she had grown up racing on these streets her whole life as she drifts around a street corner. She knows the ins and outs of racing in New York, where she can pull of the crazy stunts and where she _absolutely could not go_ if she wanted to come out in one piece.

She can see the truck behind them and the world narrows down to the truck behind her, the road in front of her, and the things in her way. "Don! Where am I going?" she asks taking another corner.

It takes him a minute to answer her since he is griping the handle above his head with one hand so hard his knuckles are turning white and she's sure her handles are cracking under the pressure but she doesn't say anything, while the other is bracing on the dashboard and when she glances at him she can see the panic in his eyes.

"Don!" She takes another corner and fishtails to avoid the hail of gunfire behind them.

She smirks a bit when she hears Raph let out a whoop while Mikey is giggling and Leo is muttering under his breath with the beginnings of panic "Shell, Shell, _Shell_."

Don shakes his head hard before glancing around.

Aurora spends the next fifteen minutes using every racing trick she had ever learned to lose their pursuers and avoid the gunfire while Don tells her where they needed to be when they lose the Dragons.

When it's over Don and Leo tumble out of her car, both of them looking like they want to kiss the ground while Raph and Mikey both are obviously riding adrenaline highs and wearing large grins on their faces.

"You alright?" Aurora asks them.

"That was _awesome_."

"Thanks Red." Aurora smirks over at Raphael.

"Dude, that was _great!_ Princess, you totally got to teach me that."

Aurora blinks and turns to look at Michelangelo "…Princess?"

"Yeah, like Sleeping Beauty! Aurora- Princess."

Aurora snorts on a laugh. She's anything but a princess, but she doesn't mind the nickname. "Leo? Don? You good?"

Leonardo turns to stare at her before stating "I never want to drive with you again." It's said so bluntly that Aurora had to choke back a laugh.

"Never?"

" _Never_."

"Don?"

It takes Aurora a second to realize Donatello is muttering statistics and probabilities under his breath about everything that could have gone wrong on their ride across the city. "Don, breathe. We made it, we didn't crash, the car didn't malfunction or flip, nothing broke and you're alive." She takes a moment to address each issue he's muttering about.

After that she is welcomed to the turtles' home and they show her how to visit.

Aurora takes them up on their offer and takes to dropping in on them frequently.

O~O~O~O~

It's weeks later that the turtles figure out the Aurora raced on the streets of New York _all the time_ and that her racing name-Swift Wing (earned from the stylized wing on both of her car's doors and her speed)- is rather famous in the circles that know about it, especially since no one had seen her face thanks to a her full body suit and matching full-face helmet (the suit had the same stylized wing on the left side above her heart and the helmet has a wing on either side). Shortly after Don learns that Aurora races on the streets against other people, he demands to see her car.

Aurora lets him look and sits in the background while Don mutters about 'dangerous' and 'improving the car's functionality if she insisted on being an idiot'.

She grins at him and doesn't argue, instead she tells him what she needs to keep on the car and that he can do what he likes otherwise as long as she can still race with it.

It's a novel experience to trust someone with her car- her baby- but she knows Don will be careful and meticulous with his alterations and she knows he's doing it because he's worried.

O~O~O~O~

The first time Aurora sees Raph on his bike she knows that it's _his_ baby the way her car is hers and she smiles because she _loves_ motorcycles and she was capable of some seriously awesome things on one.

She walks up to Raphael and leans against the wall, waiting until he's done with what he was doing before she calls attention to herself- not that she thought he didn't notice her immediately, but still- "Hey Red."

"Princess."

Aurora snorts at the nickname everyone but April, Splinter, and Don have taken to using. "You ride?"

He glances over at her and smirks "Yeah. You?"

She grins. "I do. Take me out? Don has my car at the moment so I'm free and I bet I can show you a few things you've never seen done on a bike."

She sees his eyes light up and she knows she's got him even before he stands and throws a helmet her way.

They don't take _Raph's_ bike, but one of the others.

Aura lets him drive on the way out getting a feel for how he moves with the bike and his reflexes with it.

She grins when she realizes he would keep up with her just fine.

The helmets they're wearing have Com Links in them so she can talk easily to him and gives him directions.

When they arrive at the stretch of road that Aurora had been taught on she slides off the bike. "Alright Red, I get to drive here."

The _only_ reason he doesn't argue with her is because he knows she's about to show him something he's going to want to see and learn.

When Aurora is settled on the bike with Raph behind her she starts the bike back up and dives for a few minutes just to get a feel of the bike with Raph getting used to her movements and moving with her.

After that she grins over her shoulder at him "Don is going to kill us both."

Raph smirks back "Most likely. Go!"

And Aurora is laughing as she guns forward on the bike.

O~O~O~O~

When it's all over, Raph had been near-cackling in her ear through the Com Link since the first stunt and Aura had joined in a few minutes later. (She can't _wait_ until he figures out that she hadn't shown him _anything_ yet because she couldn't pull it off with a passenger.)

"You gotta teach me that."

"Sure Red. You dive back. _Don't_ try anything we just did until I've taught you how to manage it in the City."

"Sure Princess."

Aurora and Raph pull back into the lair and find Don and Leo waiting to give them both lectures, but neither of them can find it in themselves to mind too much, still coming down off the adrenaline rushes.

O~O~O~O~

The Battle Shell is one of Aurora's favorite vehicles in existence. It has _soul_ and she loves the behemoth thing.

She's ridden in the thing hundreds of times, and she has helped Don fix it up a couple of times, she had been taught _how_ to dive it, what each button and lever did, but she had never actually driven it before.

Mostly thanks to Don and Leo and their first experience with her driving them anywhere.

Mikey and Raph are of the opinion that it would be _great_ , and she should get a turn at the wheel.

It's not until the famous 'Turtle Luck' kicks in while she's inside that she gets to drive it so the turtles can focus on fighting off their attackers.

Raph is the one driving when Leo finally yells "Aurora! Take the wheel! Raph, get back here!"

Aurora is working her way towards the driver's seat after a second of shock even as she hollers at him "I thought you never wanted to drive with me again?!"

"I _don't_ , but there are exceptions to every rule!" he snipes back.

Aurora and Raph quickly swap positions so Aurora is driving, and Aurora knows she can't really pull off too many of the stunts she could do in smaller vehicles and takes that fact into consideration as she speeds up.

O~O~O~O~

Aurora's hands are shaking from the adrenaline rush when the whole thing is over and she's managed to park the Battle Shell and turn it off.

She leans into the wheel and starts laughing as she comes off the adrenaline high.

It was different to use the Battle Shell when she was trying to pull off some of the stunts that are so much easier in the smaller vehicles, so much harder, and she had thought she was going to _flip_ them over once or twice in the middle of the chase (her heart had jumped into her mouth, but she had managed it without actually flipping them so that was nice.).

"Guys." She gasped after a minute where Don kind of fluttered around her like a worried hen.

"Yeah?" Mikey asked.

"I love you all, but I would prefer not to do that again. I thought I was gonna flip us or something more than once. The Battle Shell isn't meant to do these kinds of things." She paused "I _can_ do it again if it's ever needed, just so were clear, and I _will_ but I would like to avoid it."

Leonardo nodded "I agree. That was not pleasant."

Aurora choked on her laughter.

O~O~O~O~

When Aurora gets her car back she's grinning like an idiot and she can't even help it.

Donnie had repainted the car black with the wing on either door in a chrome-silver and Aurora _loves_ it. (It finally matches her suit and helmet instead of being a dark blue and white)

She hasn't even looked inside yet and she's thrilled with it, and she _knows_ Don had added some extras to the car even if she can't see them yet, and if she's bouncing on her toes as she waits for Donatello to finish at his computer so he can walk her through what he's done, well who could blame her?

(Though if Raph doesn't stop snickering at her she's going to punch him.)

She's staring at the chrome-silver wing on her door and she knows it's familiar somehow. She tilts her head a little before her eyes open wide and she whirls to face Mikey. "Mikey!"

"Princess?"

"Did you do the wings on the doors?"

"Yeah…?"

She almost knocks him over when she takes a flying leap at him, but he catches her just fine. (She's waiting to give Donatello his hug until he's _not_ near the breakable technology he loves so much.) "Thank you! They're _fabulous_!"

Mikey grins at her. "No problem!"

She had seen the wings done in Mikey's sketch book once before, which is why they had looked familiar to her.

By the time she was back on her feet, Donnie is headed her way and she runs right at him.

He catches her just fine too.

"Thank you so much!" she gushes at him and he flushes and stutters and Aurora is grinning at him even as he manages to speak.

"B-but I- I ha-haven't even sh-showed you anything…"

"I know, but everything you do is amazing and you took the time to work on my baby."

It only makes the blushing worse, but Aurora doesn't care, she's just _thrilled_.

"L-Let m-me show y-you what I did…"

"Please!"

O~O~O~O~

Aurora comes back from that first test drive after Donatello had worked on her car and she's _cackling_.

It's _beautiful_.

The whole thing responds so much better than before and all the _extra goodies_ are _fabulous_.

"DONATELLO!" she gets into the lair still cackling as she hollers for the purple banded turtled.

"Aurora?" he comes out of the kitchen holding a bag of Combos and Aurora takes him down to the floor this time when she runs at him.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH. BABY RESPONDS BEAUTIFULLY." She gets up after pressing a kiss to both cheeks and his forehead and happily continues on to each of the turtles to gush about her car and its performance. (Of the four, Aurora is sure only Raph really honestly appreciates how excited she is about it, even if Mikey had gotten excited for her and Leo had humored her gushing.)

Donatello had frozen in place on the floor behind her as soon as Aurora had pressed that first kiss to his cheek and didn't move, his eyes wide and staring blankly at the ceiling above him, the Combos strewn around his head not even registering to him when Aurora stood up.

Aurora doesn't notice.

O~O~O~O~

One day Aurora comes into the Lair silent as the grave and it sets of red flags for all of them.

Aurora isn't a _loud_ person exactly, but she's usually a happy talkative person and she _always_ hollers a greeting when she comes in so they all know she's there.

This time she slinks inside a silent shadow of herself. Her eyes are red and there are no tearstains on her face, but they take one look and they know she'd been crying.

Mikey is the first to see her.

"Princess?" She looks up at him from her intense study of her feet, and Mikey feels his heart twist. "Are…are you alright?"

She stares at him silently before very slowly shaking her head no.

Mikey doesn't think after that, he strides forward and he hugs her, and when she flinches in his arms for a moment before she kind of folds in on herself and lets him support her weight like she just _can't_ anymore, Mikey feels the beginnings of anger at whatever had caused it.

He doesn't say a word, he just supports her silently and when he hears footsteps his eyes lift to see Raphael frozen in the doorway.

Raphael had frozen in the door at the sight of a silent Aurora being entirely supported by Michelangelo's hold on her person and when Mikey looks up at him and Raph sees the normally playful happy blue eyes narrowed in silent anger he knows _someone somewhere_ was going to get the beating of a lifetime.

Raph doesn't say anything, he just moves forward and guides the two of them to the couch so he can sit on Aurora's other side and offer his support. "Princess? What happened?" He clenches the hand not on her shoulder with the need to _punch whatever had made her cry_. (Raphael is rude and impulsive. He tends to be a bit biting, and caustic, but Raphael had always been intensely loyal and protective of his family, and by this point Aurora had earned a place a Raphael's little sister and seeing her this way made every single protective instinct he had sit up and snarl.)

She drawls in a sharp shaky breath and curls into the couch and it makes the two of them very worried. Raph and Mikey look at each other over her head and Mikey nods once pressing Aurora into Raph's hands before he stands and murmurs "I'll be right back Princess."

He goes straight for Leo and Don.

He doesn't say anything except "Something is wrong with Aurora."

He doesn't need to say anything else. The two turtles follow in his footsteps.

They take one look at the normally lively happy girl curled into Raph like he's the only thing holding her down to the earth and they _fly_ to her side.

Leo is a warrior. He has always been a warrior. He has always defended what he viewed as his, and Aurora is his little sister now. His little sister is crying, looks like her world has been shaken out from under her feet, like a strong wind could knock her over and it _infuriates_ him.

Donatello is normally a passive kind of guy. He doesn't _like_ to look for fights, prefers his Lab and Tech, and will generally only get into a fight in defense of someone.

The sight of Aurora curled up in a ball making choked-off pained noises makes him rather violent though.

It would have been better if she had cried, Don thinks, but she doesn't. She just makes these noises that are so much worse to him.

"Aurora?"

At the sound of Donatello's voice Aurora lifts her head from Raph's shoulder. "D-Don."

"What happened?"

She can see the curiosity in them all, and they need to know.

"I-It's…" she pauses "It's all gone." Her voice is a whisper. "Everything….they…It's all _gone_." Her voice catches and chokes a bit. "My home…they _burned it around me_."

All four turtles tense up and she can feel Raph and Mikey- the only two touching her at the moment- tighten their grip on her. "What?" Raph's voice is loud in the sudden silence.

"I was…I was out driving. I knew someone was following me, so I…I lost them on the streets. I didn't- I didn't realize that they had eyes in the sky. I went home. They- They followed me home." Her voice catches again and she leans into the tense but supporting forms beside her.

"I hadn't been home more than five minutes be-before they stormed in through the windows." She can see the black-clad forms in her head swinging in through the two windows that had faced out of her apartment. "They kicked in my door." Her voice is soft. "I fought with them…I didn't win, not really. I fought them off of me, took down a chunk of them…but…but I didn't win, not with what they did to my home. They set the entire place on fire. Told me I shouldn't have raced against them. T-that they knew who I was, that I had taken a prize that was meant for the Foot, and th-that I would pay for it."

The turtles went from tense to locked, their muscles so tense they thought for a moment they may rip apart. "The Foot did this?" Leo's voice is soft and dangerous in a way that Aurora has only ever heard once and has learned means Leo is so beyond furious it's reached apocalyptic-like rage.

"Yes. I-I didn't know where else to go." Her voice is a whisper again. "I don't- I don't have anyone else here. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize." Donatello's voice is soft and his hand grips her shoulder comfortingly.

"Yeah. Don't apologize Princess. We told you, you're always welcome here! 'Specially when stuff like this happens." Mikey squeezes her with the arm he had wrapped around her.

"S'what family is for Princess." Raph's voice is strong and sure as his arm tightened from its mirrored position to Mikey around her.

Aurora hadn't cried since the first minute after she had escaped the blaze of her home, and jumped into her car, but wrapped in the safety of her adoptive family, welcomed without a thought she breaks and they hold the pieces together while she can't.

She wakes up the next morning in the middle of a turtle pile safe and warm and so, _so_ thankful for that night so long ago that they had saved her, and the night she had saved them and been welcomed into their close-knit family.


End file.
